Chasing the Hammer: I'm not watching

Barry Bonds has been on my mind all summer.

He's been there each morning while I'm taking a shower or driving to the office. He'll pop up every once in awhile while I'm cutting the grass or walking the dog.

As the sports editor, it's my job to think about things like Barry Bonds and what should be in the paper about his pursuit of Hank Aaron's home run record.

Even while on vacation this week, Barry Bonds was bugging me while the family and I watched Alex Rodriguez hit and Roger Clemens pitch.

Rodriguez, just 32, is already a home run shy of 500 and Clemens won his 351st game and picked up his 4,641st career strike out that night as the New York Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals 9-2. The pair could be considered among the top players of this generation and will probably be Hall of Famers one day.

But do they use performance-enhancing drugs? What about Bonds? Is he one of the best players of all time, or did he cheat to become one?

The next day we went to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and learned about a catcher named Josh Gibson.

While Babe Ruth hit 714 home runs and Aaron finished with 755, Gibson could be considered the real home run king. His plaque in Cooperstown reads, "…who hit almost 800 home runs in league and independent baseball during his 17-year career."

Known as "the black Babe Ruth," Gibson was credited with 962 home runs in the Negro and Latin American leagues. Playing against Major League pitchers in exhibition games, Gibson hit .426 in recorded at-bats.

Unfortunately, Gibson died at age 35 a few months before Jackie Robinson's Major League debut.

Does that mean the "gentlemen's agreement" gave Ruth an advantage? Would he have hit as many home runs facing a pitcher like Satchel Paige?

To hit 750 home runs a player must average 34 a year for 22 seasons. During his 22-year career, Bonds has hit that many or more 13 times including a record 73 in 2001. Only once -- 2005 -- did Bonds not have at least 300 at-bats in a season.

Of course, Bonds has been under suspicion that he used performance-enhancing drugs since 1999. But he's never tested positive and has said he's never knowingly taken any.

Driving back from Kansas City gives one plenty of time to consider all the facts but some guidance from the commissioner might be nice.

"Everyone has to make their own judgment," Bud Selig said in an Associated Press story earlier this week. "I'm just here to watch."

Gee, thanks Bud.

I should have known better. After all, Selig has considered letting Pete Rose back into baseball and wasn't very proactive in stopping the use of performance-enhancing drugs.

If Cal Ripken admitted in today's Hall of Fame speech that he had a secret twin brother who would play an occasional game, would Bud also shrug that off?

The steroid era grew from the absence of a strong commissioner. After the death of A. Bartlett Giamatti in 1989 and Fay Vincent resigned in 1992, there was no sheriff until the summer of '98 when Selig took over as commissioner.

By then Ken Caminiti had won an MVP, which he later admitted was helped by steroid use, while Mark McGwire had androstenedione in his locker during his single-season home run record assault.

Bonds, already a Hall of Fame candidate, decided to level the playing field himself by using performance-enhancing drugs, according to the book "Game of Shadows."

So do we celebrate Bonds reaching 755? I can't help but wonder what Giamatti would have done.

While writing about his decision to ban Pete Rose, Giamatti's words seem relevant today in terms of steroid use.

"It will be debated and discussed. Let no one think that it did not hurt baseball. That hurt will pass, however, as the great glory of the game asserts itself and a resilient institution goes forward," he wrote. "Let it also be clear that no individual is superior to the game."

If baseball can overcome the White Sox scandal, segregation, the designated hitter, Rose's banishment, work stoppages and canceling the World Series, then it can handle steroids and a new home run king.

I'm tired of thinking about Barry and Bud, so I'm just not going to watch.

Brian Rosener is the sports editor for the Daily American Republic. His column runs Sunday in the DAR and throughout the week online at darnews.com and semoball.com.